OPTIMUM PARAMETERS OF

TUNED LIQUID COLUMN DAMPERS

FOR SEISMIC APPLICATIONS

Presented by
DR. M. M. MURUDI
RESEARCH SUPERVISOR

1
 CONTENT OF THE PRESENTATION

• TUNED LIQUID COLUMN DAMPERS

• RESEARCH OBJECTIVES (GOALS)
• RESPONSE OF BUILDING DUE TO EARTHQUAKES
• MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF TLCD
• RESPONSE TO HARMONIC EXCITATION
• RESPONSE TO RECORDED EARTHQUAKE EXCITATIONS
• RESPONSE TO ARIFICIALLY GENERATED GROUND MOTIONS
• NUMERICAL STUDY
• REFERENCES

2
 TUNED LIQUID COLUMN DAMPERS

• A TLCD is a U-shaped tube of uniform cross-

section, containing liquid

3
 TUNED LIQUID COLUMN DAMPERS

• Its natural frequency is tuned in general to the

first natural frequency of the structure.

• Vibrational energy is transferred from the

structure to the TLCD through the motion of the
rigid TLCD container exciting the TLCD liquid.

4
 TUNED LIQUID COLUMN DAMPERS

• The vibrations of the structure are reduced by

the TLCD through the gravitational restoring
force acting on the displaced TLCD liquid

• Energy dissipation in the water column is due to

the passage of the liquid through an orifice with
inherent head-loss characteristics.

5
 TUNED LIQUID COLUMN DAMPERS

• TLCD is characterized by
• Mass ratios (µ)
• Tuning ratio (f),
• Ratio of tube width to the liquid length (α)
• Orifice opening ratio (d)
• Head loss coefficient

6
OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT STUDY

• To study the effectiveness of a TLCD in reducing

the earthquake response of structures of various
natural time periods and structural damping
ratio.
• An attempt will be made to define appropriate
design parameters of the TLCD that is effective
in controlling the earthquake response of a
structure.

7
OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT STUDY

• The parameters of TLCD in present study are

• Mass ratios (µ) & Tuning ratio (f)
• Ratio of tube width to the liquid length (α)
• Properties of orifice
• Diameter ratio
• Coefficient of discharge
• Properties of fluid inside TLCD.
• Friction factor
• Viscosity
• Density of the liquid 8
OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT STUDY

• The Earthquake ground motions that to be

considered are
• Harmonic ground motion
• Actual recorded earthquake ground motions
• Artificial ground motions (different sets
defining different frequency content and
bandwidth of the ground motions).

9
OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT STUDY

• The proposed methodology for the present study

• To develop a numerical formulation for
earthquake response analysis of SDOF
(shear structure) with TLCD with different
parameters.
• To identify the important design parameters
of TLCD
• To investigate the effectiveness of TLCD for
controlling the earthquake response of
structure 10
OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT STUDY

• The proposed methodology for the present study

• To carry out experiment on a TLCD to verify
the different parameters of TLCD.

11
 RESPONSE OF THE BUILDINGS TO
EARTHQUAKES

• Building response characteristics vary with

building frequency and time period.
• As building period lengthens, accelerations
decrease and displacement increases.
• The amount of acceleration which a building
undergoes during earthquake is a critical factor
in determining how much damage it will suffer

12
 RESPONSE OF THE BUILDINGS TO
EARTHQUAKES

The important parameters in determining response

of the building are
• Building Frequency and Period
• Ductility
• Damping
• Response spectra

13
 MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF
TLCD - STRUCTURE SYSTEM

Some assumptions for TLCDs in deriving the

equations of motion include:
• The fluid is incompressible
• The sloshing behaviour on the liquid surface is
negligible
• The in-plane width of the TLCD vertical column
cross-section should be much smaller than its
horizontal length
14
 MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF
TLCD - STRUCTURE SYSTEM

Equation of Motion under Harmonic Excitation:

When the damper-structure system experiences a

vibration, the liquid column tube will have the same
horizontal translational motion as the structure, and
the liquid column will experience a relative motion
with respect to the tube.

15
 MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF
TLCD - STRUCTURE SYSTEM

Equation of Motion under Harmonic Excitation:

Let
r = density of the liquid in TLCD
h = vertical length of liquid in TLCD
B = horizontal length of liquid in TLCD
A = cross-sectional areas of the liquid column

16
 MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF
TLCD - STRUCTURE SYSTEM

Equation of Motion under Harmonic Excitation:

Using energy principles, the incremental total

energy of the system should equal the work done
by the external force.

The kinetic energy of the entire system is

17
 MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF
TLCD - STRUCTURE SYSTEM

The kinetic energy of the fluid system is

Integrating and simplifying

The kinetic energy of the structure is

18
 MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF
TLCD - STRUCTURE SYSTEM

The kinetic energy of the entire system is

The potential energy of the fluid system is

Performing the integration

19
 MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF
TLCD - STRUCTURE SYSTEM

The potential energy of the entire system is

Therefore, the generalized forces associated with

the coordinates and respectively, can be
expressed as:

20
 MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF
TLCD - STRUCTURE SYSTEM

The equations of motion of the system can be

derived from the following Lagrange’s equations

Where i = 1, 2.
With
q1 = xs ,

q2 = y and
t is the time 21
 MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF
TLCD - STRUCTURE SYSTEM

The equations of motion of the structure with liquid

column damper are given by

Under the condition

22
 MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF
TLCD - STRUCTURE SYSTEM

The inherent non linear damping of liquid motion

could be replaced by a linear equivalent damping
ratio as
.

23
 MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF
TLCD - STRUCTURE SYSTEM

The equation of motion of TLCD-structure can be

written into the matrix form as

24
 RESPONSE TO HARMONIC EXCITATION

The steady state responses of both the structure

and the liquid motion of the TLCD under the
harmonic forces excitation are given by

Where,

25
RESPONSE TO FAR FIELD RECORDED
EARTHQUAKE EXCITATIONS

Response of structure subjected to far field

recorded earthquake accelerations
Five ground motions recorded at different sites for
different earthquakes considered are
 El-Centro ground motion (PGA=0.319g)
 Kobe ground motion (PGA =0.834g)
 Mexico city (PGA =0.101g)
 Northridge (PGA =0.843g)
26
 Taft (PGA =0.178g)
RESPONSE TO FAR FIELD RECORDED
EARTHQUAKE EXCITATIONS

The equations of motions of structure are

coupled.
These equations have to be solved
simultaneously to obtain the response of the
structure with and without TLCD.
In the present study, an iterative numerical
procedure (Newmark’s Beta method) is used to
compare the response of the structure.
27
RESPONSE TO ARTIFICIALLY GENERATED
GROUND MOTIONS

There is a difficulty with studying the

effectiveness of TLCD for individual ground
motions, which typically have uneven response
spectra.

This can be overcome by evening out the

response spectra over a frequency spectrum.

28
RESPONSE TO ARTIFICIALLY GENERATED
GROUND MOTIONS

This is achieved by taking a significant number of

artificially generated accelerograms and
considering the mean structural response.
The advantage of this approach is that the
frequency content and bandwidth of the
earthquake ground motion can be varied to
represent an ensemble of ground motions for
different types of soil conditions.
29
RESPONSE TO ARTIFICIALLY GENERATED
GROUND MOTIONS

The random fluctuations observed in records of

strong-motions earthquakes usually follow
general patterns.
Typically, the recorded earthquake ground
motions begin with small amplitudes, which
increase with time until a period of strong motion
occurs.
When the strong motion is over, the amplitudes
decay steadily until the motion ends.
To reflect this character of actual ground motion,
the intensity shaping function chosen is as shown
30
RESPONSE TO ARTIFICIALLY GENERATED
GROUND MOTIONS

31
RESPONSE TO ARTIFICIALLY GENERATED
GROUND MOTIONS

Following the procedure outlined as above, sets

of twenty artificial accelerograms are generated,
using the software PSEQGN, from the time-
modulated Kanai-Tajimi spectrum by defining
particular values for its frequency parameter g
and damping parameter g.
Initially, three different sets of accelerograms are
generated using three different Kanai-Tajimi
filters, corresponding to a base white noise
ground motion filtered through hard (or shallow),
medium, and soft (or deep) soil layers,
respectively. 32
RESPONSE TO ARTIFICIALLY GENERATED
GROUND MOTIONS

Soil frequency content wg xg

strata centered at
hard soil 2.5 Hz 5p rad/s 0.6
medium 1.5 Hz 3p rad/s 0.4
soil
soft soil 0.5 Hz 1p rad/s 0.2

Each set has the same mean peak ground

acceleration of 0.35g, approximately corresponding to
the peak of El Centro motion.
For all these three sets of motions, the values of ti, tsd
and td taken are 4, 11 and 30 seconds. 33
 NUMERICAL STUDY

The parametric study involves 4 different

structures with different fundamental time periods.
The structures are classified into four systems
namely Type 1, Type 2, Type 3 and Type 4 on the
basis of natural time period of the structures.

34
 NUMERICAL STUDY

The properties of these structures are

Structure Type Type Type Type
1 2 3 4
Mass (tonnes) 2736 3363 2647 18000

Stiffness (kN/m) 238550 238560 11104.6 18200

Natural time 0.672 0.745 3.067 6.248

period (sec)
35
 NUMERICAL STUDY

The properties of TLCD are

Liquid in TLCD Water

1000 kg/m3
Head loss coefficient (δ) 0.5
Liquid Length Ratio (α) 0.6
Mass Ratio (µ) 0.025
Frequency Tuning Ratio (λ) 1
36
 NUMERICAL STUDY

The effectiveness of TLCD is studied for

parameters such as maximum displacement and
maximum acceleration.

Each structure is analysed first without TLCD and

then with TLCD subjected to harmonic and
recorder far field earthquake accelerations.

37
 NUMERICAL STUDY

% reduction in displacement and acceleration of different structures

subjected to harmonic ground motion with PGA 0.25g

Maximum Maximum
displacement acceleration in
Time % Reduction
  (m) % Reduction in (m/s2)
Period in
Structure Displacement
(Sec) Acceleration
Without With Without With
TLCD TLCD TLCD TLCD

Type - 1 0.62 1.33 0.28 78.6 116.8 23.38 79.99

Type - 2 0.75 1.63 0.34 78.8 116.5 23.48 79.86

Type - 3 3.07 16.73 6.01 64.1 70.11 24.48 65.08

Type - 4 6.24 40.66 22.10 45.6 41.14 21.78 47.06 38

 NUMERICAL STUDY

% reduction in displacement and acceleration of different structures

subjected to El-Centro ground motion (PGA=0.319g)

Maximum Maximum
displacement acceleration in
Time % Reduction
  (m) % Reduction in (m/s2)
Period in
Structure Displacement
(Sec) Acceleration
Without With Without With
TLCD TLCD TLCD TLCD

Type - 1 0.62 0.12 0.05 55.1 11.04 5.43 50.8

Type - 2 0.75 0.11 0.04 60.28 7.89 4.53 42.6

Type - 3 3.07 0.43 0.2 54.5 3.82 2.26 40.9

Type - 4 6.24 0.49 0.34 30.8 3.07 2.76 10.1 39

 NUMERICAL STUDY

% reduction in displacement and acceleration of different structures

subjected to Kobe ground motion (PGA =0.834g)

Maximum Maximum
displacement acceleration in
Time % Reduction
  (m) % Reduction in (m/s2)
Period in
Structure Displacement
(Sec) Acceleration
Without With Without With
TLCD TLCD TLCD TLCD

Type - 1 0.62 0.45 0.24 46.2 40.07 20.53 48.8

Type - 2 0.75 0.33 0.18 46.5 25.13 12.43 50.5

Type - 3 3.07 0.40 0.19 51.9 8.99 4.55 49.4

Type - 4 6.24 0.25 0.12 52.0 8.39 4.26 49.2 40

 NUMERICAL STUDY

% reduction in displacement and acceleration of different structures

subjected to Mexico city ground motion (PGA =0.101g)

Maximum Maximum
displacement acceleration in
Time % Reduction
  (m) % Reduction in (m/s2)
Period in
Structure Displacement
(Sec) Acceleration
Without With Without With
TLCD TLCD TLCD TLCD

Type - 1 0.62 0.06 0.02 61.4 5.07 1.99 60.8

Type - 2 0.75 0.03 0.01 52.2 2.24 1.04 53.8

Type - 3 3.07 0.15 0.08 48.7 1.41 0.71 49.5

Type - 4 6.24 0.36 0.18 50.0 0.99 0.60 39.4 41

 NUMERICAL STUDY

% reduction in displacement and acceleration of different structures

subjected to Northridge ground motion (PGA =0.843g)

Maximum Maximum
displacement acceleration in
Time % Reduction
  (m) % Reduction in (m/s2)
Period in
Structure Displacement
(Sec) Acceleration
Without With Without With
TLCD TLCD TLCD TLCD

Type - 1 0.62 0.16 0.09 45.3 19.43 9.60 50.6

Type - 2 0.75 0.19 0.10 47.7 18.13 8.59 52.6

Type - 3 3.07 0.94 0.48 49.0 10.05 5.38 46.5

Type - 4 6.24 0.52 0.26 49.5 4.73 4.73 46.2 42

 NUMERICAL STUDY

% reduction in displacement and acceleration of different structures

subjected to Taft ground motion (PGA =0.178g)

Maximum Maximum
displacement acceleration in
Time % Reduction
  (m) % Reduction in (m/s2)
Period in
Structure Displacement
(Sec) Acceleration
Without With Without With
TLCD TLCD TLCD TLCD

Type - 1 0.62 0.06 0.02 62.7 5.37 2.00 62.7

Type - 2 0.75 0.05 0.03 41.8 3.77 2.42 35.7

Type - 3 3.07 0.14 0.07 48.6 2.08 1.04 50.0

Type - 4 6.24 0.26 0.16 37.7 1.80 0.90 49.8 43

 NUMERICAL STUDY

Time history of Displacement of Type 2 structure subjected to

harmonic ground motion with PGA = 0.25g
2

1.5

0.5

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2

Without TLCD with TLCD 44

 NUMERICAL STUDY

Time history of Acceleration of Type 2 structure subjected to

harmonic ground motion with PGA = 0.25g
150

100

50

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

-50

-100

-150

Without TLCD With TLCD

45
 NUMERICAL STUDY

Time history of Displacement of Type 2 structure subjected to

El-Centro ground motion (PGA=0.319g)
0.15

0.1

0.05

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

-0.05

-0.1

-0.15

Without TLCD With TLCD

46
 NUMERICAL STUDY

Time history of Acceleration of Type 2 structure subjected to

El-Centro ground motion (PGA=0.319g)
10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
-2

-4

-6

-8

-10

Without TLCD With TLCD

47
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THANK YOU

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